re: Colt Possibly Selling to CZ Firearms

quote:

---

 very gun-friendly European country. 

---

Czech Republic is basically the second best country in the world to reside if you want to own a gun. And they're laws are getting even better. I know over the summer Their president wanted gun ownership to be a constitutional right there.

They have a commie-hating government and the Eatern bloc is about the last refuge left on earth that embodies real Western values and has not been totally infiltrated by Marxists.

If/when the shite hits the fan over here, I would have no problem living on the outskirts of Prague and carrying a CZ P10C loaded down with Sellier & Bellot ammo.

quote:

---

Colt without the military connection, however, seem irrelevant. They also charge way too much for their AR products for what you're getting and they don't seem have shook that M16 A1 design from their platforms.

---

This.

quote:

---

They also don't make a good striker fired polymer handgun.

---

And this as well.

How the hell Colt and Remington (I know, they've become utter garbage), two iconic American arms makers, aren't in the striker-fired/polymer/CCW market goes to show how terribly those companies have been run. There's no reason for either of them to not have a viable option in those sectors and they just don't. I know Remington put out the RP9 a while back, but it's on the level of a Hi Pernt but costs double.

I just don't get it. It's a damn shame how both of those brands have been driven into the ground.

The Czech laws were still kinda weird/ restrictive when I was there in November of 2019. I went to the CZ store in Prague and It was pretty cool to look at all their guns (especially the Bren 2 back before they were being imported to the US). Kinda sucked though since I couldn’t hold any of the guns because they said Czech laws prevent anyone from even handling a firearm without a license.

Anyone who wants to know why Colt is in such shite shape, in 2018 a former employee who now has a gun channel went on YT to really break it all down... It's a long vidoe. But he gives lots and lots of in depth details. Video

Essentially, Colt is stuck in the mindset of making cowboy guns, 1911s and the M16 based AR15 with virtually zero innovation and relied solely on their military contracts and 1980s mentality.

Former CEO was a former Marine General who filled the upper level mgt with retired marine buddies who had no idea how to run a business.

Eventually, all of the great engineers retired or left and the company lost its military contract then the whole house of cards collapsed.

Now, theres no good engineers there and they have nothing really to offer modern militaries or civilian markets because they haven't innovated at all over the last 30 years and never listened to their customer base.. So they eventisy abandoned them and other companies took their market share and lapped them in innovation and design.

They sound a lot like IBM or Nikon. They seemingly had the mentality of "We're Colt, we're better than you, now buy our stuff" and then got smoked.

From the video, they have a huge hole to dig out of, but good management can do it.

Is CZ going to move the Colt operation to Little Rock or is that facility for other CZ products?

I know they announced the plan in to build in 2019, long before Colt was sold.

No matter, CZ will do right by Colt. Arkansas is also becoming a firearms haven.

Sig has a factory there, and so does Walther. Now with CZ/Colt being there, those are huge names all in the state. That's one thing Asa Hutchinson has done right.

So, CZ officially bought Colt last week for $220 million in cash. Colt will now likely be integrated into CZ's planned Little Rock headquarters/factory operation... Which has now been delayed another 3-5 yrs because of this deal.

I'd assume colt will still use their Connecticut headquarters until then.

Per Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

quote:

---

The company said Friday it purchased all the shares in Colt Holding Company LLC, the parent company of Colt Manufacturing Co. LLC and its Canadian subsidiary, Colt Canada Corp.
The deal is worth $220 million and 1,098,620 newly issued shares in Ceska Zbrojovka and is subject to approval by regulators.

The Czech company said it expected the transaction to be completed in the second quarter of 2021.

"With this strategic move, CZG will acquire significant production capacity in the United States and Canada and substantially expand its global customer base," the Czech company said.
The company employs about 1,650 workers in the Czech Republic, United States and Germany.

Once the Colt transaction is completed, Ceska Zbrojovka will need time to integrate the new company into its operations, hence the need to delay the port project, spokeswoman Eva Svobodova said in an email.

"For this reason, we anticipate postponing the construction of the Little Rock plant by three to five years," she said. "We have already notified Arkansas officials about the ongoing acquisition of Colt and the delay in the construction in Little Rock."

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who first began luring the Czech firearms manufacturer in 2014, confirmed in a prepared statement that he was notified of the Colt acquisition but said CZ-USA didn't provide specifics on how the deal would impact the port project. Still, while concerned about a potentially prolonged lag, the governor said he worked on bringing production of Colt weaponry to the state.

"This is great news for CZ to take ownership of the iconic American brand of Colt firearms, but it is concerning that this may lead to a lengthy delay on the Arkansas investment," he said. "Of course, we will make the case that we can make the Colt brand in the state. Both AEDC and myself will continue our conversations with CZ on this project."

The delay is only the latest one in the project.

Preliminary work already had been done for what is planned to be CZ-USA's 265,000-square-foot facility on a 73-acre site off Zeuber and Fletcher roads east of Interstate 30 on land owned by the Port of Little Rock.

Initially, some hiring for the production plant was supposed to be begin in the fall of 2019 with still more hiring in the spring of 2020, according to a CZ-USA page on the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce's website.

By the time the spring rolled around, CZ-USA reaffirmed its commitment to the project but not at the pace it initially envisioned. Among the factors in the delay was "creating an appropriate funding framework," according to a spokesman.

By last July, construction was supposed to begin the next month.

Last week, the delays were attributed to the coronavirus pandemic.
Svobodova said the company fully intends to hold up its end of the bargain with the state.

"We are ready to honor any contractual obligations towards the State of Arkansas," she said.

---